ADDIS ABABA –– Ethiopians turned out in droves on Sunday to vote in hotly contested elections that are hoped to put the vast Horn of Africa nation known for grinding poverty and famine squarely on the path to democracy.
Masses of voters lined up in a pre-dawn chill at more than 30,000 polling stations that opened at 6:00 am (0300 GMT), which in Ethiopia’s peculiar system of timekeeping is midnight to locals, and were to close 12 hours later.
In the capital and elsewhere, long trails of the country’s 26 million registered voters snaked through streets and alleys with lengthy waits the most common complaint despite opposition claims of fraud, harassment and arrests.
In at least one Addis Ababa polling station, election observers said they found scores of ballots pre-marked with votes for the ruling party, an irregularity seized on by the opposition.
Former US president Jimmy Carter, the highest-profile of more than 300 foreign poll monitors here, reserved judgement on the complaints but said the process was moving smoothly with the exception of delays.
“So far today, we have not seen any problems of note,” he told reporters at Addis Ababa University.
“With the extremely long lines, sometimes the balloting has been slow, but everywhere we have been … once they get started my impression is that they are moving fairly rapidly,” Carter said. Voters and election officials in more than 70 polling stations in and around the capital reported small logistical hitches that in some cases caused ballotting to start late but the most common problem appeared to be long lines.
“Because the people came in such large numbers we had to start a little late,” said Bedad Tofu, a polling site chief in Mojo, 77 kilometers (45 miles) south of Addis Ababa.
“I’ve been here since 5:30 am and, as you can see, because the line is so huge that (three hours later), I am still far behind others,” said Sisay Nega, a high-school teacher on the outskirts of the capital.
“The only problem we are having is a lack of experience among some of the elderly voters,” said Adam Oumer, an election official in Debrezeit 40 kilometres from Addis Ababa. “That is time consuming because we have to explain it to them.”
Voters are choosing between Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which has been in power for 14 years, and scores of smaller parties, including those in two main opposition groups. –– AFP